Being a Mom..

I can’t believe my baby is 9 months old. It seems like just yesterday I was at home all day long taking care of my newborn baby wondering if things would ever get easier. The newborn stage was not easy at all for me. Luckily my husband and running kept me sane most days. Although I look back now I miss it. I wish I would have held her more (even though I spent most of my days holding her non-stop because she HATED being put down), I wish I would have relaxed a bit more and not worry so much about cooking and cleaning, I wish I would have gotten out of the house more often with her and not stay cooped up because I was scared to go out in public alone with a new baby. The first two weeks were easy. She slept all day and only woke up to nurse and have her diaper changed. She has always been a pretty good sleeper at night, but during the day, it was nearly impossible to get her to nap for longer than 15 minutes, unless I allowed her to nap on me. My Ergo carrier became my best friend. By the time my husband would get home from work I was so exhausted because she gave me no breaks and she was ready for bed for the night by the time he got home (lucky him).

During my last few weeks of maternity leave I let her nap on me as much as she wanted. I knew those were moments I would never get back and wanted to soak it all in. Once Atiana turned 3 months she started napping better, she allowed me to actually put her down and she slept 10 – 12 hours at night. All of a sudden she became this perfect baby right when I had to return back to work (I went back to work when she was 3 ½ months old). I worked part-time my first week back to work. I had such a hard time transitioning and leaving my baby. However, each passing week became easier on the both of us. She loves daycare now! She’s so spoiled there and has become so smart from being around so many kids from ages 6 months – 5 years old. The daycare she attends is also a preschool and she’s included in all the preschool activities. I don’t have to worry about what I’m “supposed” to be teaching her which is something I always questioned when I was home all day with her.

My husband has always given me the option to stay home with our baby or to continue to work. I choose to work because #1 I’m not good at the stay at home mom thing. I’d go crazy! Call me crazy but I call into work “sick” less now than I did pre-baby because let’s face it, staying at home is much harder than being at work (most days) lol. #2 Josh and I want to continue to travel the world with Atiana. We still want to be able to go to nice dinners often, have nice things, buy our dream home within the next couple years (Our little family has outgrown our current home we purchased 6 years ago), and spoil the heck out of Atiana. We have so many goals still and having Atiana has only motivated us more. I’m thankful that we have a daycare we absolutely love because it allows me to continue to work knowing my baby is being well taken care of daily and at the end of the day I’m so excited to see her. She is my motivation in life.

At nine months old our baby has become such an easy baby! We are often told she’s the kind of baby who “tricks” people into wanting a baby. She’s so much fun, she never cries (she will whine if she’s overly tired but you’ll rarely ever hear her cry), she sleeps from 7:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. every night in her crib and within moments of opening her eyes she’s full of smiles and energy. She’s so hyper! Some mornings, if I’m not ready to get up at 6:30 a.m., I’ll bring her back to bed with me and nurse her back to sleep and she’ll sleep another hour in bed with me. I love how easy she is because it truly makes being a mom so enjoyable all the time. Never in a million years did I think I would be the kind of mom who would want to take my baby everywhere with me. I’m the weird one who actually enjoys taking my baby to the grocery store or Target runs.

I was never one of those girls who knew they wanted to be a mom. I always loved babysitting but wasn’t ever sure if I wanted to be a mom. Even once Josh and I got married we still didn’t know if we wanted to have a baby. We said if we did decide to have a baby it would be after five years of being married. We did lots of traveling together and spoiled each other like crazy and then realized we were ready for something more. We wanted a little one to take on all our adventures with us. It took falling deeply in love with the right person for me to realize I wanted a baby. I never in a million years knew how much I would love being a mommy until I became one.

So here we are, one week away from going on our first family vacation together to Cancun! Atiana already has her first passport and two more vacations planned for next year, Cabo and Costa Rica. While I’m nervous about flying with a little one, I’m excited to make memories and share our love for traveling with our little mini.